Summary
DOK Leipzig is expanding animation across its 2026 festival and industry programme, running October 26 to November 1. The eighth Animation Perspectives pairs Leipzig filmmaker Franz Impler with Belgian media artist Anton Cla for a programme of game-influenced work and process discussion. Animation Night traces visions of space from 1966 to 2026, followed by a live “film concert” combining stop motion, 16mm projection, synthesisers, tape and radio. A retrospective honours Norwegian studio Trollfilm and founder Anita Killi’s handmade multiplane cut-out work. The DOK Neuland XR exhibition includes three animation-based projects, while DOK Industry will host sessions on European adult animation, visibility, animated documentary and broadcaster-backed short films. Its XR strand spans handmade, 3D, data-driven and generative forms, including the AI-assisted projects Anatomy of a Massacre and Dreams Under Siege.
Hana’s perspective
I find the festival’s breadth more valuable than a simple “AI in animation” panel. It places AI-assisted work beside handmade cut-out animation, stop motion, games, XR and documentary practice. That gives audiences and producers a way to judge generative techniques as one part of a larger visual language rather than an automatic replacement for craft. The industry sessions also focus on visibility, financing and first projects, which are the practical barriers that shape what gets made. I will be watching the two AI-assisted XR works for evidence of why the technology was necessary to their stories, not just how it was used.
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